Ever feel like you’re making it up? Christine Sheehy
How many entrepreneurs do you know who are searching for their big thing?
That innovative service or product that will make your name. That ‘thing’ that gets people talking, the one that spreads almost of its own volition, the one that unlocks the door to leverage and hallelujah, finally brings that freedom you crave.
Many of us feel our way into this online game. We start out only with a vague notion of how we help others, but a burning desire to be different, to stand out, to create something truly innovative, and transformative too.
You look around at those people who’ve already created an amazing online brand and an amazing six-figure product, and wonder if it will ever happen for you. You want to be original, but it feels like everything has already been said and done.
Then one day, you create a product (or a service, or maybe even just a blog) that gets an incredible reaction. People are telling you how it touched them, or how it transformed their lives. And all you can think is
“But I’m just making this stuff up.”
You see what you did there? In one easy sentence, you undermined everything you’ve created.
Because there’s a difference between “making something up” and “creating” it. It has nothing to do with the product itself and everything to do with respect for your own genius.
Yes, I said genius. Everything that has ever been created, started with someone “making it up.” So why not you? Why do we afford other people’s creations, a level of respect and authority we don’t give to ourselves?
Our words matter. The way we talk about our work, the way we express what we do, the way we share it with others, creates our reality. What we give out, we get back.
If we want to be a stand out voice, if we want to create something meaningful and of value and of lasting impact, then we must take our gifts seriously and afford them the respect – and awe – they deserve.
If we want to stop playing small and step into our gifts, then we must accept them with gratitude. We must recognise that the work we are creating may actually be bigger than ourselves, that the wisdom that flows through our fingertips may come from deeper levels than we can consciously access.
We must stop denigrating our work in the name of some false humility and start listening to those who are impacted by it, accepting their feedback with grace and wonder.
So how about embracing the power of your work?
Start by reading through some customer feedback, or sitting quietly with a few testimonials. Pay special attention to the transformative effect you have on the lives of your customers, because that’s what creates your legacy.
Don’t resist it, or push the kudos onto someone else. Feel it, let it fuel your fire and drive you forward to create more good work.
Because at the end of the day, every last one of us is making it up.
Christine Sheehy is a messaging coach, copywriter and bestselling author at www.christinesheehy.co and her work is all about taking wholehearted entrepreneurs Write to the Heart of Your Business. She’ll help you shed the corporate shackles, find your writing voice, bring who you are into what you do and engage your tribe of loyal followers.
Nine years ago, Christine gave up a successful legal career for that of professional circus performer – or at least that’s how it feels most days, as she juggles her creative and coaching pursuits with the infinitely more demanding task of parenting three small children. Her journal and pen is never far away and in 2014 her first book hit the New Zealand bestseller list in its first week on the shelves. She works, dreams (and persistently tries and fails to give up coffee) from her home in a seaside village near Matakana, New Zealand.
